Contains a primary source document--a letter written in 1916 protesting U.S. Postal Service censorship of an anarchist publication--and suggests ways to use the document in secondary U.S. history classes. Samples of student surveys on mail censorship and a document analysis worksheet are included. (AM)

Offers seven ways of circumventing or defusing issues of censorship in the English classroom. (RL)

Presents an exercise in which students interview various groups of citizens--church leaders, school officials, government and business leaders--in order to give students a broader understanding of the definitions of obscenity and community standards. (HTH)

Proposes the use of the guided design model, a means of introducing students to decision making in their chosen field of study, in the English teacher education curriculum. Discusses the distinguishing characteristics, development, and execution of a guided design project on censorship. Offers materials for such a project. (RL)

Describes a testing situation in which students were required to waive their right to discuss the exam, to personalize for students the constitutional problems raised by prepublication agreements such as those required of government workers. (HTH)

Discusses the history of debate about the roles of indoctrination versus free inquiry in the classroom in American education. Many present-day theorists may discover what educators of the 1930s found: that there is no contradiction between transmitting democratic values while opposing censorship and indoctrination. (MD)

To help educators deal with controversial issues, the references in this list of resources address the types of objections frequently raised about instructional materials, ideas for school policy, the position statement of a professional organization on the teaching of controversial issues, teaching suggestions, and related legal considerations.…

This book presents 30 brief practical teaching ideas for writing and English instruction in secondary classrooms. The first chapter presents various strategies for helping students learn to write well: students compile their own examples of effective writing; they turn interviews into gift books; they record their own activities for a whole day to…

Contains representative selections from issues of "Elementary English," a precursor to "Language Arts," from its fourth decade of publication. Includes articles, editorials, and ads reflecting contemporary concerns of English education still relevant today, such as censorship, criticism of reading instruction, and the evolution…

Asserts that infringements on the freedom to research and teach detracts from effective teaching and unbiased research. Suggests that some sociologists permit infringements out of confusion over possible outcomes and fear of being punished for noncompliance. (CFR)

Working from case studies of teachers and from the actual language used by teachers and students, this book provides a rationale for and a description of a response-centered approach to the teaching of literature in the secondary school. Embedded throughout the book are student activities. Each chapter gives suggested readings of related articles…

Focusing on the rationales and materials for teaching social issues in the English classroom, this thematic issue contains the following articles: "Introduction: Reflections of Society in Literature" (M. B. Fleming); "Addressing Social and/or Controversial Issues in the English Classroom" (S. Totten); "The Growing Threat to Quality Education: How…

Discusses the political relevance of Miller's play about Salem witch trials to (1) the McCarthy era hearings, and (2) current cases between religious fundamentalists and school curriculum boards. Summarizes the history of these events and relates them to an interpretation of "The Crucible." (JG)

Focusing on a wide range of interdisciplinary themes and ideas for humanities instruction, the 17 articles in this journal issue discuss the following topics: (1) literature, humanities, and the adult learner; (2) the role of the humanities in educating for a democracy; (3) humanities in the marketplace; (4) literature versus "great books" in high…

Examining the impact of computers in language arts instruction, this journal issue focuses on the practical classroom use of computers. The essays discuss the following topics: (1) using the personal computer to organize the language arts curriculum; (2) computers in a writing project; (3) the potential of microcomputers for English classrooms;…